


I've got a war in my mind

by laurakatherine



Series: Road Trip [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Sad Isaac
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-17
Updated: 2013-08-17
Packaged: 2017-12-23 19:19:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurakatherine/pseuds/laurakatherine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Isaac tells Stiles about his brother, and they camp out at a waterfall. Cuddles ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I've got a war in my mind

Stiles rolled over in bed the next morning, flinging his arm out only to hit something; or more specifically, someone. He opened his left eye slowly, reluctantly, wincing at the light filtering in through the window and the pounding in his head to see Isaac sprawled out on his bed, half naked. Stiles raked his eyes over his bare back and raised his eyebrows appreciatively. His lithe muscles were visible under his skin, and his shoulders looked even better than they had in his suit the night before.  
"Stiles. Stop staring at me." Isaac mumbled, his face pressed against the mattress.  
"Sorry." Stiles whispered back.  
He lay there for a moment, drumming his fingers on the mattress lightly. He squeezed his eyes shut, attempting to ward off the horrific hangover that was undoubtably about to hit him.  
"Stop that." Isaac said gently, putting a hand over Stiles' fingers.  
"Sorry." Stiles said again.  
Isaac groaned in reply. "What is it?"  
Stiles opened his eyes and turned over to face Isaac. "I told you I'd let you know if I still wanted to leave, right?" Stiles asked.  
Isaac turned towards Stiles and opened a single eye. "You're serious?"  
"Yeah." Stiles nodded.  
"Why?"  
"Why what?"  
"Why would you want to go with me?" Isaac asked, pushing himself up into a sitting position.  
Stiles let out a throaty chuckle. "I don't have any plans. Besides, you really have seemed like you've needed to get out of town recently. I wouldn't want you going all Omega on us, so I've decided I'm going with you." he replied simply, pushing himself off the bed and going to his closet to pull on a tee shirt.  
"Are you serious?" Isaac asked, watching the way Stiles' shoulders moved as he tugged his shirt on.  
"As a heart attack." Stiles turned towards him, grinning cheerfully.

After hastily throwing a bunch of clothes into a suitcase, saying goodbye to his Dad, and grabbing a bunch of food and the credit card that gave him access to the savings account his father had started for him when he was eight, Stiles bundled Isaac into his car and made for the McCall's house. Isaac dashed into the house to get some clothes and say goodbye to Scott and Mrs. McCall, and came out carrying a suitcase, Scott hot on his trail. Scott stormed up to the window of Stiles' jeep angrily, face like thunder.  
"What the hell, Stiles?" Scott asked.  
"Good morning, Scott, lovely to see you." Stiles replied, slinging his arm out of the window.  
"You're leaving?" he asked, evidently fuming.  
"Yeah, for a while. We're going on vacation." Stiles smiled back cheerfully.  
"When was this decided?"  
"Last night." Stiles said.  
"It was this morning, actually. There wasn't any time to tell you, Scott." Isaac interjected apologetically, picking up his bags and taking them around to the trunk of the Jeep.  
"Stiles, man… come on, you don't have to go with him." Scott said under his voice. Stiles saw Isaac freeze in his wing mirror, right in the middle of putting his bag into the trunk.  
"I know I don't have to. I want to. It'll be fun." He smiled again, and saw Isaac relax, putting the bag down and slamming the trunk shut.  
"Are you serious? You're just going to leave?" Scott asked, the anger falling away from his face, to be replaced with confusion.  
"Yeah, Scott I am. Look, the guy obviously needs a friend."  
"I need a friend too."  
"No, you need some time to try and get over all of this. I get that it's been stressful, but you don't need me right now, and he does. I'll call you in a couple of days, okay?" Stiles said as Isaac got into the car.  
"Okay man, fine, whatever." Scott replied frustratedly, backing away and into the house.  
Stiles smirked. "Someone's a grumpy puppy this morning." he put the car into drive.  
"As ever." Isaac leaned forward and slid a CD into the player.

With wind blowing through the windows and Isaac's favourite band blasting from the stereo, Stiles' beloved Jeep hit the Interstate. As soon as the boys had crossed the Beacon Hills boundaries, the mood had become noticeably lighter, as if they really could run away from their problems. Stiles spotted Isaac closing his eyes and leaning his head against the headrest of the passenger seat, and realised that it was probably the first time he'd ever seen him completely relaxed. It made him smile, seeing Isaac that way. If he was handsome when he was suited and booted, beautiful when the sun was pouring in through Stiles' window and he was just being roused from sleep, Isaac Lahey was beyond belief when he smiled, and when his terse posture finally relaxed. It was as if the stress of the last few months had been magically wiped away when Stiles offered to leave town with him, and that made Stiles feel a glowing sense of pride; he found that out of nowhere, he had begun to enjoy making Isaac happy.  
"So, where are we going first?" Stiles asked, one hand on the steering wheel, the other resting on his leg.  
"Um… I'm not sure. Where do you want to go?" Isaac asked, unsure.  
"Oh, no, Lahey, you're not getting out of this one. You're the one who initiated this road trip, so you're the one calling the shots here." he grinned.  
"Well… there's this waterfall about sixty miles up the road. It's only small, but I've never seen it… could we… I mean, would you mind if we visited?" Isaac asked sheepishly.  
"That sounds like a plan to me. Know where it is?" Stiles asked, leaning across Isaac and pulling a map out of the glove compartment. Isaac nodded, pulled a pen out of his pocket, and circled a spot on the map. Stiles nodded. "Okay then, looks like we're headed to a waterfall."  
Isaac smiled. 

They drove for two and a half hours to reach the waterfall, and it was decidedly the most beautiful place Stiles had ever seen. Just as Isaac had said, it wasn't massive, but it was incredible. It was surrounded by rocks and trees, and flowed into a clear blue river that Stiles was having a hard time resisting the urge to jump into. As soon as the pair pulled in, Stiles jumped out of the car, kicked his shoes off and went to dip his toes in the water at the base of the waterfall.  
"This is incredible!" Stiles shouted over the din of the water. "Get over here!" Isaac smiled lopsidedly and came over to the side of the river, sitting down and taking his shoes off carefully. He dunked his toes into the river, sitting there on the bank, and all of a sudden, Stiles found himself enjoying the way the sunlight looked on his blond curls. Stiles looked over at Isaac, sitting peacefully beside him. "How did you know about this place?"  
Isaac looked at the ground, his face filling with a heartbreaking sadness that Stiles very nearly couldn't bear to look at. "My brother told me about it."  
"I didn't know you had a brother." Stiles said.  
"Yeah, Camden. He died." Isaac nodded, his expression turning blank.  
"Oh, Isaac, I-"  
"Anyway, he, uh…" Isaac interrupted. "He brought his buddies up here the weekend after they graduated. They all camped out for two days, and he came home and showed me pictures, told me it was one of the most beautiful places he'd ever seen."  
"Did he ever bring you?" Stiles asked.  
"No, he enlisted instead." Isaac looked up at Stiles and smiled melancholically.  
Without thinking, Stiles reached over and took Isaac's hand in his.  
"That's the second time in two days you've held my hand." Isaac commented.  
"It seemed appropriate this time." Stiles replied, gripping a little tighter.  
Isaac relaxed and allowed his hand to mould itself to the shape of Stiles'. "I liked it yesterday, too."  
"I- you did?" Stiles sputtered.  
"Yeah. Is that okay?"  
"More than okay. Is it… like… I mean, is it okay if I hold it more often?" Stiles asked, forcing down the rising embarrassment within him.  
Isaac nodded, squinting at Stiles in the sunlight. "Do you want to camp out here tonight?"  
"Yeah, sure. It's not like we're in a rush, right?" Stiles gently extracted his hand from Isaac's to run over to the Jeep. He rooted through the trunk and finally found a blanket, wrinkled and kind of gross at the bottom of his bag. "Ah hah! So we don't totally freeze."  
"Well, so you don't totally freeze." Isaac called back.  
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, pup." Stiles shot back.

That night, when the blanket wasn't offering much protection against the surprisingly cold night, Isaac pulled Stiles to him, looping an arm around his waist. Being a werewolf meant that his body temperature ran on high, and so Isaac pulled Stiles close to him to make sure he stayed warm. Stiles' head rested on his shoulder, his arm flung over Isaac's waist, Isaac's cheek pressed to the top of his head. At some point in the night, when both of them were no doubt half asleep, Isaac's hand found its way into Stiles' once more, and knitted their fingers together. Isaac could have sworn he heard the other boy sigh contentedly, felt him lean into him just that little bit farther, but this was not a time at which Isaac was going to rely on his werewolf senses versus the ones that told him that he could never have gotten lucky enough for Stiles Stilinski to be sleeping next to him, relying on him for warmth, sleepily smiling as his fingers touched Isaac's. It hadn't been long that Isaac had been crushing on Stiles; just the last few weeks or so, after his and Allison's make-out made him realise that there was no chemistry between them whatsoever, that she would simply have to remain his best friend. It was that fact that Stiles' infectious smile that had begun lifting his mood after Scott had started freezing him out in earnest that had led him to understand that there was no one else quite like Stiles, no one that made his mind go totally blank and mushy like he did.  
It was with difficulty that Isaac fell asleep that night, in part because of the presence of the boy that made his heart thump loudly against his ribcage, but mostly because he was terrified that Stiles would find out about the nightmares that plagued his sleep most nights. He'd begged Scott not to tell anyone, and so knew that his secret was safe; even angry, Scott was not spiteful. He was terrified to wake up screaming in front of Stiles, haunted by dreams of confined spaces, of belts snapping, of broken bottles, of Derek snapping his arm, of his brother in a coffin, so terrified that Stiles would begin to see him as weak, that he lay awake that night, telling himself that it was to keep watch. When Stiles woke up the next morning, he would simply pretend to be well-rested, and ask what their next stop would be. He would never have to know a thing.


End file.
